Interactive touch screen device for wine

Abstract

Interactive display and rendering device, system and method for wine bottles are disclosed. An interactive wine management and display device and method using a scanning instrument capable of scanning information regarding a bottle of wine; an imaging instrument capable of collecting an image of at least a portion of a bottle of wine; a connection to a wine database containing information regarding wines; a connection to a database having images of wine bottles. The device is able to render the images as well as information on the wine to a display for user interaction.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An interactive touch screen door for use with a wine cabinet having an interior and a rack in the interior to hold wine bottles, the interactive touch screen door to provide access to the interior and comprising:
 a transparent touch display embedded in the interactive touch screen door and having a size at least corresponding to a portion of the interior; and   a controller operatively connected to the transparent touch display and configured to:
 provide, on the transparent touch display, information associated with the wine bottles stored in the cabinet; 
 receive, via the transparent touch display, a wine search parameter; and 
 recommending a bottle of wine from the wine bottles based on the wine search parameter to define a recommended bottle of wine by displaying on the transparent touch display an indicator at a physical location of the recommended bottle of wine in the wine cabinet; 
 wherein the indicator is superimposed on the transparent touch display to be in line with at least a portion of a contour of at least one of the wine bottles corresponding to the wine search parameter. 
   
     
     
         2 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 1  wherein the wine search parameter comprises at least one of a food type, a price, a year, a location/origin, a vineyard, or a wine type. 
     
     
         3 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 1  wherein the controller is further configured to:
 receive, via the transparent touch display, a wine selection; and 
 display, on the transparent touch display, information associated with a bottle of wine of the wine bottles corresponding to the wine selection. 
 
     
     
         4 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 3  wherein the information associated with the bottle of wine comprises an image of a label on the bottle of wine. 
     
     
         5 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 4  wherein the information associated with the bottle of wine further includes at least one of a suggested food pairing, a price, a year, a location/origin, a vineyard, or a wine type. 
     
     
         6 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 5  wherein the information associated with the bottle of wine further is the suggested food pairing. 
     
     
         7 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 1  wherein the controller is further configured to:
 receive, via the transparent touch display, a wine consumption indication; and 
 update a wine database to represent that a bottle of wine corresponding to the wine consumption indication is no longer stored in the wine cabinet. 
 
     
     
         8 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 receive, via the transparent touch display, an add wine bottle indication;   display, on the transparent touch display, one or more menus that enable a user to provide information to be associated with a new bottle of wine to be added to the wine cabinet;   receive via the transparent touch display a new bottle indication of a location where the new bottle of wine is to be stored in the wine cabinet; and   store the information associated with the new bottle of wine and the location of the new bottle of wine in the wine cabinet.   
     
     
         9 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 1 , further comprising a handheld computing device communicatively coupled to the controller, the handheld computing device configured to:
 receive the wine search parameter; and   direct the controller to display, on the transparent touch display, the indicator corresponding to the physical location of the wine bottle in the wine cabinet corresponding to the wine search parameter received at the handheld computing device.   
     
     
         10 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 9 , wherein the controller is configured to receive, via the transparent touch display, a wine selection, and the handheld computing device is configured to display information associated with the wine bottles corresponding to the wine selection. 
     
     
         11 . The interactive touch screen door of  claim 1  further comprising a handheld computing device communicatively coupled to the controller, the handheld computing device configured to:
 receive an add wine bottle indicator; and 
 receive, via the transparent touch display, an indication of where a new bottle of wine is to be stored in the wine cabinet; 
 wherein the handheld computing device is configured to capture an image of a label of the new bottle of wine and perform image processing on the captured image to identify the new bottle of wine, and to automatically obtain information to be associated with the new bottle of wine based on the identified new bottle of wine. 
 
     
     
         12 . A door for use with a refrigerated cabinet having an interior and a rack in the interior to hold one or more liquid containers, the door to provide access to the interior and comprising:
 a transparent touch display embedded in the door; and   a controller operatively connected to the transparent touch display and configured to:
 receive, via the transparent touch display, a container search parameter; and 
 recommending a liquid container from the one or more liquid containers based on the container search parameter to define a recommended container by displaying on the transparent touch display an indicator at a physical location of the recommended container; 
 wherein the indicator is superimposed on the transparent touch display to be in line with at least a portion of a contour of at least one of the one or more liquid containers corresponding to the container search parameter. 
   
     
     
         13 . The door of  claim 12  wherein the controller is further configured to provide, on the transparent touch display, information associated with the one or more liquid containers stored in the refrigerated cabinet. 
     
     
         14 . The door of  claim 12  wherein the controller is further configured to:
 retrieve information related to the recommended container; and 
 display, on the transparent touch display, the information related to the recommended container. 
 
     
     
         15 . The door of  claim 12  wherein the controller is further configured to recommend at least one different liquid container based upon the container search parameter and related to the recommended container by displaying, on the transparent touch display, another indicator at a physical location of the at least one different liquid container. 
     
     
         16 . The door of  claim 15  wherein the at least one different liquid container is indicated with a line connecting the recommended container to the at least one different liquid container. 
     
     
         17 . A method of controlling an interactive wine cabinet including a refrigerated compartment, a rack to hold one or more bottles of wine in the refrigerated compartment, a door to provide access to the refrigerated compartment, and a transparent touch display embedded in the door, the method comprising:
 receiving, via the transparent touch display, a wine search parameter; and   recommending a bottle of wine from the one or more bottles of wine based on the wine search parameter to define a recommended bottle of wine; and   displaying, on the transparent touch display, an indicator at a physical location of the recommended bottle of wine in the interactive wine cabinet, wherein the indicator is superimposed on the transparent touch display to be in line with at least a portion of a contour of the recommended bottle of wine.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  further comprising:
 receiving, via the transparent touch display, a wine consumption indication for the recommended bottle of wine; and 
 updating a wine database to represent that recommended bottle of wine corresponding to the wine consumption indication is no longer stored in the interactive wine cabinet. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 receiving, via the transparent touch display, an add wine bottle indication;   displaying, on the transparent touch display, one or more menus that enable a user to provide information to be associated with a new bottle of wine to be added to the interactive wine cabinet;   receiving, via the transparent touch display, an indication of a location where the bottle of wine is to be added to the wine cabinet; and   storing the information associated with the bottle of wine to be added to the wine cabinet and the location of the bottle of wine to be added to the wine cabinet.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising a handheld computing device communicatively coupled to the transparent touch display, the handheld computing device configured to:
 receiving, at a handheld computing device in communication with the door, the wine search parameter; and   directing the transparent touch display to display one or more indicators corresponding to physical locations of the recommended bottle of wine corresponding to the wine search parameter received at the handheld computing device.